The use of electrical appliances, especially domestic appliances, without an attachment line to the main supply has been known for some time now and is tending to further increase daily on account of its practical aspects. However, this use is generally limited to the occasional operation of a number of appliances equipped with an electric motor, such as table sweepers, fans, mixers, electric screw-drivers etc. These appliances are generally equipped with an electric battery which may or may not be rechargeable and whose capacity, given an acceptable size, is sufficient to ensure the corresponding periodic use of the appliances. In the context of rechargeable batteries, these appliances are equipped with a stand connected to the main electricity supply and have electrical contacts intended to cooperate with corresponding electrical contacts provided on the actual appliance.
Although it is true that these appliances function correctly within the context of their application, they nevertheless have the double disadvantage that, when the power needed for the appliance increases, they require, on the one hand, electric batteries of large dimensions, thereby increasing the weight and the space taken up, and, on the other hand, electrical contacts which are of good quality and durable over the course of time.
In the specific context of cordless hair-driers, appliances have been proposed in which the thermal source was ensured either by catalysis or by means of gas burners. In this case, the electricity source supplies only the fan intended to pulsate the air at the thermal source, with a view to creating the hot air flow leaving the hair-drier. However, this type of hair-drier has the disadvantage of requiring a periodic replacement of the cartridges and, moreover, the addition of piezoelectric devices, or similar, able to ensure the lighting of the gas. Furthermore, they are not without danger in the event of being dropped, given the risk of gas escaping and of its instantaneously combusting. Hair-driers have also been proposed in which the thermal source conventionally consists of electrical resistors, and whose supply is provided by means of rechargeable accumulators when the hair-drier is positioned on a stand, itself connected to the main electricity supply (see, for example, DE-A-3,429,319). This type of appliance proves to be of very limited use in terms of time, due to the fact that the charge of the accumulators for feeding said electrical resistors is very quickly exhausted.